Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Texas Ups & Downs, Icy Water & Steroid Use Accusations

I've had me a day. By 3 in the afternoon it caused something that rarely, very very rarely happens, in that I passed out for a few minutes in the form of a nap. Very unsettling.

A bit before that, the President of my Fan Club (I think there are now 2 members), emailed me with the shocking accusation that she believes my bloggings have grown more long-winded due to my performance enhancing steroid use in the form of Dragon Speak 10. I deny this shocking accusation. I am naturally long-winded and I've not yet even got the Dragon Speak Voice to Text program totally up and running.

I proudly admit I never win at anything. This was once more true, this morning, when my first game of Facebook Scrabble ended with me thoroughly trounced, something like 566 to 133, beaten by Karen, the Washington Queen of Scrabble. I don't think Facebook liked me playing Scrabble, because now Facebook is saying that due to supposed technical problems Scrabble is not working.

After my Scrabble defeat I needed to do something where there was some likelihood that I might not fall down. I so enjoyed yesterday's mountain biking at River Legacy, after not having been there in so long, I decided to go back and stay longer.

Well, I did not have a wreck. But there were problems. I decided I'd try one of the new sections, a section on which the warning sign simply said "Steep Climbs." How steep could they be, I thought. There are just gullys here, no hills.

Just like with Scrabble and turning letters into words, my topography observations are equally faulty. When I turned on to the "Steep Climbs" trails, I sort of easily made it up the first steep climb. The steep drop off was a bit daunting, then the next steep climb equally so. And then I did the 3rd up and down and barely up again. And then I saw the next drop-off.

No way was I going down that. It was not just steep. It was vertical. And then the next climb was also steep and at an angle. So, I took the wimp's way out and walked my bike back up and down the steep things I'd already biked. It was not easy it was so steep, with the dirt loose in places.

That is a short section of the "Steep Climbs" trail in the picture above. The picture does not give even the slightest idea of how treacherous this was for an elderly biker.

No wonder I later passed out and had a short nap.

I forgot to mention, I went swimming this morning around 8am. I lasted at least a minute. I swam from the shallow end to the deep end and back and decided, if I did not get out, extremities were going to go into frostbite mode. I got in the hot tub and could not feel if it was hot or not. It felt good though.

I'll try again in the morning. I didn't think it felt all that cold. I think it's just that I've not been in the frigid water for over 2 months and I've got to get back re-acclimated and must keep telling myself that it's not as cold as Tacoma last summer, it's not as cold as Tacoma last summer, it's not as cold as Tacoma last summer.

Speaking of Tacoma, I keep hearing from people up there who feel/felt my pain, due to their own pains, to varying degrees, dealing with the one who Gar the Texan has labeled "Lord Voldemort." I have absolutely no idea who Lord Voldemort is. I think Jabba the Hut is more appropriate, but then again, like I said, I've no idea who Lord Voldemort is.

According to one of my sources, anonymous, of course, so take it with the credence an anonymous source deserves, but one of my anonymous sources has told me that law enforcement is once more dealing with Lord Voldemort of the Hut of Jabba, due to theft accusations somehow associated with Fremont. The message was very cryptic, with no details. I believe one of the original probation terms was a prohibition against being where money was exchanged. Which made no sense to me. How is one supposed to go shopping if one can't go where money is exchanged? Or do much of anything for that matter?